Peter Barnes | Romans 12:1
SERMON NOTES
A LIVING SACRIFICE
(Romans 12:1)
– Romans 12-16 deal more with the Christian life, based on Christian doctrine
1. Ethics flows from doctrine.
– 12:1; like Eph.4:1
– the alternative is to appeal to self-interest or platitudes
2. God’s mercies are to affect how we live.
– 12:1; can appeal to other motives e.g. Rom.8:13; 2 Pet.3:11; 1 Cor.15:58; Gal.6:9; note John Piper’s Future Grace
– but here it is God’s mercies (plural); see Eph.2:4-5 and Tit.3:5 for the rebirth
– C. T. Studd on the cross: ‘I had known about Jesus dying for me, but I had never understood that if He died for me, then I didn’t belong to myself … When I came to see that Jesus Christ had died for me, it didn’t seem hard to give up all for Him.’
3. Our bodies are to be living, holy and acceptable sacrifices.
– 12:1; see Lev.22:19-20
– only logical thing to do.